Growing up as a New Orleans musician in the 1940s and ’50s, Mac Rebennack had a street-level view of jazz legend of Louis Armstrong.

“We’re both from the same neighborhood in New Orleans,” says the man who became Dr. John, “and every time my pa would pass his pad, he would say, ‘That’s where Louis Armstrong was born.’ He wouldn’t say ‘Satch’ or anything. He would say ‘Louis Armstrong,’ and that meant a lot to me as a kid.”

Dr. John’s dad operated a general store that sold records, so “Louis was a slamming influence,” he says. “I remember when my pa was selling records — traditional jazz, bebop and Afro-Cuban music — and that was the three forms of jazz at the time. I can remember lots of Louis Armstrong.”

They met only once, in the office of their mutual manager, the infamous Joe Glaser, around 1967, three years before Armstrong died. Dr. John remembers their conversation being about a different store, Ralph Schultz’s Fresh Hardware, a popular gathering spot for any and all needs.

A few years ago, the two musicians had another conversation — of sorts.

“Louis came to me in a dream and said, ‘Do my stuff … your way,'” Dr. John says. “I thought about it for a while. And then I just started doing it.”

One result is “Ske-Dat-De-Dat … The Spirit of Satch,” a vibrant, all-star tribute to Armstrong that comes out on Aug. 19 from Concord Music Group.

Dr. John, sounding as strong as ever vocally at 73, enlists the Blind Boys of Alabama on “What a Wonderful World,” Bonnie Raitt on “I’ve Got the World on a String,” Anthony Hamilton on “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” and Shemekia Copeland on a funk version of the insult-flinging duet “Sweet Hunk O’ Trash.”

“It’s one of those songs (Armstrong) did with Billie Holiday that touched me big-time back in the game,” he says. “When I was a kid, in the ’40s, it was like, ‘Wow, this is a slick maneuver.’ ”

An early surprise on “Ske-Dat-De-Dat” is a hip-hop verse on “Mack the Knife.” “We was rolling, and I thought not only do I have Mike Ladd doing something on that song, but I have Telmary Diaz from Cuba doing a rap on another song (“Tight Like This”). And I just think you gotta put all the perspects in order.”

About the drawn-out process of making the record, Dr. John says, “We did everything in sequential maneuvers. Hey, listen, nothing is easy, but you’ve got to roll with everything in this racket, you know. After working with Joe Glaser, and when he was managing Louie Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie, I had a feeling it was a good thing to do.” He credits Glaser for getting “B.B. King and I good starts.”

For Dr. John, that happened in 1968 with “Gris-Gris,” a trippy album from druggy days that put a voodoo tinge on psychedelic rock. It’s ranked No. 143 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

His more commercial breakthrough came in 1973 with “In the Right Place,” which featured his two signature songs, “Right Place Wrong Time” and “Such a Night” (the latter was performed in The Band’s landmark 1976 farewell “The Last Waltz”). It was one of the bigger showcases for Dr. John.

“I just remember that Robbie (Robertson) didn’t want the girl singers on that gig, and then he had to overdub something, you know, with the Staples Singers and somebody — I can’t think right now. I’m sure I would have liked to brought my girl singers to spice it up a little, you know. And I had some bad girl singers back then.”

Along with churning out his own records at a rapid pace, Dr. John was a popular session musician for acts ranging from Sonny & Cher to Canned Heat. What stands out the most to him, he says, was “playing organ on Aretha’s ‘Spanish Harlem’ and using the same stop on James Taylor and Carly Simon’s ‘Mockingbird’ — using the same stop on a lot of records. But it was Jimmy Smith’s organ, and it had a good sound. That was the main thing about it all for me.”